Cardio workouts are essential for heart health and are also a must if you’re trying to cut down and get slimmer. Whether you are running, swimming, hopping on a bike, or taking a cardio class, try to add these six tips to get more out of your heart-pumping sessions.
- Include Sprinting Intervals: Our Santa Ana Used Fitness Equipment Experts say that by switching between a few minutes at a moderate pace and putting in bursts at a quicker pace, you’ll burn more calories, develop more endurance, and become quicker and stronger. Furthermore, intervals are known to reduce belly fat.
- Use Your Arms: A variety of cardio type of workouts are all about the legs, so when possible, attempt to maximize your cardio time by focusing on working your arms as well. Swing them while running (don’t hold on to the treadmill or elliptical handles), get creative with your arm strokes.
- Make The Duration of Your Workouts Longer: Our Santa Ana Used Fitness Equipment Experts say that most cardio workouts last between 30 or 45 minutes, so burn more calories by pushing yourself a little longer. In addition, our Santa Ana Used Fitness Equipment Experts suggest you try and check out how many extra calories five minutes of cardio burns.
- Add Strength Training: The main focus of cardio workouts is to burn calories through high-intensity movement, but you can also use this time to strengthen your muscles. To target the legs and butt area, our Santa Ana Used Fitness Equipment Experts recommend you incorporate inclines on your runs, bike rides, and hikes. When in the pool, use the resistance of the water to tone your muscles by using webbed gloves.
- Mix Up Your Cardio Sessions: Our Santa Ana Used Fitness Equipment Experts say in order to build overall body strength and endurance and to prevent repetitive stress injuries, it’s important not to do the same type of cardio all the time, such as running. You’ll get even more out of your cardio workouts if you include at least three different kinds each week.
- Make It A Bit More Difficult: Other than adding inclines, our Santa Ana Used Fitness Equipment Experts say you should try to discover other methods to make your cardio workout more difficult. Additionally, try and stand instead of resting your butt on the seat when on your bike, run with high knees, try the more advanced version of the move your fitness instructor is demonstrating, and do the more intense butterfly stroke instead of the crawl. Remember that compared to the rest of your day, this workout is only a short time, so give it your all.